9 Actors Who Almost Played Comic Book Villains

Mads Mikkelsen was top choice for one of Marvel's least memorable villains in one of the MCUs very worst movies, Thor 2: The Dark World.

While the Danish actor couldn't play the part of Dark Elf Malekith The Accursed due to a scheduling conflict with NBC's Hannibal series, it would have been interesting to see if a different approach may have elevated this role

Known on the big screen for his villainous role in Casino Royale, his distinctive voice and appearance can be used to create a strange, compelling mix of charm and menace, but it's still hard to imagine his take on the character coming off much better than Christopher Eccleston's, with the actor lost under a sea of prosethtics and bad dialogue.

Marvel chiefs clearly liked the idea though, because Mikkelsen later made his MCU debut as evil sorcerer Kaecilius in 2016's Dr Strange. Thankfully, he was unburdened of many of the issues that plagued Eccleston in The Dark World, making for a better villain overall, although the script still didn't make full use of his considerable talents.